Apparatus for and method of making hat bats



Feb. 11, 11. G. CROMPTON, JR

APPARATUS FOR AND METHOD OF MAKING HAT BATS Filed May 4, 1938 Patented Feb. 11,1941

PAIVENT oi-Flor:

APPARATUS FOR AND METHOD OF MAKING HAT BATS Getorge'crompton, Jr., Worcester, Mass., assignor o Behr-Mannin s C rp rat on, T oy, N. 1., a corporation of Massachusetts Application May 4, 1938, Serial No. 206,016

6 Claims.

The invention relates to apparatus for and a method of making hat bats.

One object of the invention is to provide a method of making hat bats which shall greatly.

5 reduce the time necessary to shrink the fur, An-

other object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus greatly speeding up the production of hats. Another object of the invention is to make a superior felt. Another object 10 of the invention is to standardize hat bodies so that the ultimate size of the hat with a given amount of fur and size of forming cone can be predicted with more certainty. Another object of the invention is to permit the use of a substanl5 tial amount of filler fur yet without any loss of time in the shrinking of the hat body. Another object of the invention is to standardize the shrinking of hat bodies. Another object of the invention is to permit the use of smaller forming 20 cones.

reduce the amount of shrinking in the felting of the fur between the starting operation and the final sizing operation. Another object of the invention is to so form'a hat bat that a smaller 25 bat may be usable to make a. given sized hat.

Another object of the invention is to permit the use of shaped cones for the formation of hat bats. Other objects will be in part obvious or in part pointed out hereinafter.

30 The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements, arrangements of parts, and in the several steps and relation or order of each of said steps to one or more of the others thereof, all as will be il- 35 lustratively described herein, and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the following claims.

In the accompanying drawing showing one of the many possible embodiments of the mechani-.

40 cal features of this invention Figure 1 is a view partly in side elevation and partly in vertical section showing an apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention.

Figure 2 is a wiring diagram.

45 Figure 3 is a side elevation of a forming cone of special shape which may be used in accordance with the present invention.

Referring first to Figure 1, I provide a base III. This base It is preferably made of porcelain 5o bricks put together without any mortar. As there are no great mechanical. strains or stresses in the apparatus to be mounted on the base It thebricks may be merely laid together without any danger of the base falling to pieces. 55 Upon the base II I mount a cast iron frame Another object of the invention is to II comprising a bottom portion 12, legs [3. and a table portion ll. -n the bottom portion 12 is a slow speed electric motor l connected by a belt IE to a roller H or a pulley connected thereto, the shaft l8 of the pulley and roller being jour- 5 nalled in a pair of brackets l9 attached to the legs [3. r

A pair of glass brackets 20 support shaft 2i and 22 supporting rollers 23 and 24. The brackets 20 are attached to the table l4. A pair of brackets 26 also attached to the table ll support a shaft 21 which supports a roller 28. A rubber conveyor belt 30 passes around the rollers 11, 23, 24 and 28 as shown. At the front of the machine is an upstanding bracket 3| holding a hopper 32 which has a large opening 33 at the top and a small opening 34 at the bottom which will direct fur onto the moving belt 30 which moves in the direction of the arrow.

I provide an angle bracket 35 on the right-hand I 2 end of the base II which supports a motor 35. Supported by the table I4 are a pair of glass plates 31. These glass plates 31 like the brackets 20 have insulated metal bearings, ,not shown, supporting a shaft 39 upon which is mounted a picker or wind roller 40 having the usual projections 4|. This picker or wind roller III is made of metal and may be made of sheet metal, for example sheet aluminum so that it shall be light, and the projections H which extend lengthwise of theroller, as usual, may be made of sheet material or made solid, as desired; A rubber belt 42 connects a pulley on the motor 36 with a pulley attached to the picker or wind roller and thus the picker or wind roller 40 is rotated 35 at a high speed. y V v.I provide still anotherbase 45 which may be made of porcelain segments laid together, the entire base constituting an, annulus. I provide still another base comprising a pair of integral 4o porcelain cylindrical pieces I6 and 41 one above the other. These may be dovetailed together if desired. Supported by the base 45 is a wire screen constituting a Faraday cage. This has a door 5| for access to the interior thereof. On top of 45 the upper porcelain cylinder .6 is a cylindrical piece of porcelain 52 of the shape indicated. Supportedby the porcelain 52 is a metal bearing 53 which journalsa vertical shaft 54. A shoulder on the shaft constitutes a thrust 50 bearing. A disk-like, plate 56 is connected to the shaft 54 and supports a skeleton cone supporter 51. A removable cone 5! of the shape now well known for the formation of-hat batsis mounted on the support 51. The cone 58, how- 55 ever, is preferably smaller than the cones now in use.

Supported by the porcelain 52 is a metal cylinder 60 having a hooded or curved top portion Glflwith a front opening 82. A door 53 'is provided in the side of the metal cylinder 50.

I provide a motor" on the armature shaft of which is a worm -12 meshing with a worm wheel 13. The worm wheel is fastened to a shaft ll journalled in bearing brackets 15 and 16 which may be attached to the floor. The shaft 14 ex-;

tends through the base wall 45 where there isl' a coupling 11 connecting the shaft II with a through an opening'in the lower porcelain cylinder base member 41 to a coupling 88 which connects the glass shaft 18 to a short shaft 8| on which is mounted a bevel gear 82. The short shaft 8| is journalled in a journal 88 mounted in an opening in the porcelain 41. The bevel gear 82 meshes with a bevel gear 85 which is mounted on the lower end of the shaft 54. Thus when the motor 10 is energized the disk 58 is rotated at a slow rate of speed and thereby the cone 58 is also rotated. The cone 58 preferably has not the usual perforations. The Faraday cage 58 is preferably grounded as diagrammatically indicated in Figure 1. 1

As will be explained more in detail hereinafter, the cone 58 is charged with electricity and so also is the cylinder 88 and the picker or wind roller 48. Other parts of the machine are insulated. The charge on the picker or wind roller 88 is the same as that on the cylinder 69 and is opposite to the charge on the cone 58. The potential used is or may be around forty thousand volts but I do not desire to be limited to any particular potential. Preferably a potential of five thousand volts and up will be employed and desirably something under one hundred and fifty thousand volts will be employed.

In the manufactureof hats according to the present invention any usual or known fur may be employed. Many hats have been made out of wool and this may also be used in accordance with the present invention. Assuming, for example, that rabbits fur is used, of the variety well known as B. C. B., this is carroted by the fur cutter in any usual or preferred manner, for example with the use of the carrot patented to Warren C. Mercier consisting of mercury nitrate with an excess of nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide. This carroting operation makes the fur to a limited extent conductive which contributes to the deposit of fur electrostatically according to the present invention. The pelts are then taken to the cutting machine and theiieeces cut therefrom. After thatthe usual blowing operation may be resorted to to separate the dirt and segregate the fur from the hairs. At that stage the fur may be used pure or filler fur may be introduced in any given amount if desired. Fur carroted as indicated will take a considerable amount of filler fur and the use of the apparatus and method of the present invention also renders it possible to use a large amount of filler fur so that I may use fifty per cent or even more of ,nected to rectifiers 98 and 91.

revolving picker and wind roller ll Desirably. for the formation of a given hat bat, a weighed amount of fur will be used.

The wind roller or picker 48 operates in the manner already known to throw the fur into the air and forwardly in the form of a cloud or storm of fur. The fur is directed to the opening 62 in the hood 8| of-the cylinder 88 of the forming machine. The storm or cloud of fur is charged electrically by the metal picker or wind roller 48 with electricity of a given charge. However the entire cylinder 60 and hood 6| is metallic and is charged with the same charge. The fur is thereglass rod or shaft 18. The glass rod 18 extends fore repelled from the walls of the hood GI and from the walls of the cylinder 68. As it descends in the cylinder 68, which it will do by reason of gravity, it is attracted to the cone 58. Accordingly the entire charge of fur, or substantially the entire charge of fur, is deposited upon the cone 58.

An outstanding difierence between the manner of depositing fur upon the cone 58 according to the present invention and according to prior machines which use suction to deposit the fur, is that the fur particles are deposited, according to the present invention, normal to the surface of the cone 58. That is to say, considering any very small area of the surface of the cone 58 as a plane, the fur particles stand perpendicular to the surface; stating this in another way, the fur particles stand radial to the circle of the cone and stand perpendicular to elements of the cone. The top of the cone is not a geometrical cone but is more or less spherical. The fur particles on this portion of the cone 58 stand radial to the sphere. Furthermore the individual fur particlesare evenly spaced upon the cone 58 by reason of the fact that like charges of electricity repel each other and the fur particles as the cone 58 were charged with like charges.

Considering now the electrical diagram of Figure 2, I provide any suitable source of alternating current in power lines 99 and 9|. For example 550 volts commercial current may be used, selecting one phase of the three phase current, I provide a switch 92 and a transformer 93 the primary of which is connected to the lines 98 and 9|.

The secondary oi the transformer 93 is con- The rectifiers are connected to lines 98 and 99. Lines 98 and 99 are connected by a condenser I88 and a switch lfll. Line 99 is connected by a conductor I02 and brush I03 to the coupling which, through the shaft 8| bevel gears 82 and and shaft 84 iselectrically connected to the disk 56 and the cone 58. Line 98 is connected by a conductor )5V to the picker or wind roller 48. Line 98 is connected by a conductor I06 to the hood 6].

The lines 98 and 99 may be supported by heavy porcelain insulators H8 and hangers I l I from the ceiling. The cone support 51 is well insulated from the cylinder 68 and the'picker or wind roller 40 is well insulated from all parts of the apparatus. The various driving connections are well insulated so that charges of very high voltage can be imparted to the picker or wind roller 40, the hood SI and cylinder 68, and the cone 58 as described.

A given grade and quantity of fur for the manufacture of hats-having been provided, the operator places a weighed amount thereof in the hopper 33 or upon the belt 30. As previously stated, a feeding mechanism may also be employed. The fur is delivered by the belt 30 to they approached the revolving picker and wind roller 40. The latter is charged with electricity and imparts a charge to the fur as the fur is blown upwardly ductive and permits the imparting of a charge to them.

As the fur descends in the hood 6i and cylinder 60 it is repelled from the walls thereof and it is attracted to the cone I8. The fur is deposited upon the cone II but stands perpendicular thereto.

when the fur has become deposited upon the cone 58 the operator opens the switch 92 and closes the switch llil. The fur will not drop' off the cone 58 when the switch 92 is opened because the cone isalways wet from the continued application to it of wet cloths and immersion in water a when it is on the sinking kettle. The latter will be done carefully because of the charge collected by the condenser I00. when the various p rts of the apparatus have thus been discharged, the operator opens the doors 5| and 63 and places a wet cloth upon the cone 58 in the usual manner. He then places a second cone upon the cloth duced according to the present invention is that the fur is much more dense y packed. I have observed that in the sizing of hats, statistically speaking, the fur fibres move: outwardly. Since in the normal operation of making a hat the hat a bat is a very tenuous body of large dimensions and the final hat body is a densely felted article quite thick but much smaller in area than the hat bat, it must be concluded that the fur, statistically speaking, moves outwardly; a mere interchange of fur fibres'in the plane of the hat bat or hat body will not cause shrinking and sizing. By starting with a hat bat the fibres of which have been laid normal to the'surface 5f the cone a much denser packing of the fur is achieved. It will be understood that the winding of the usual cloth over the deposited fur on the cone 58 will temporarily alter the position of the fibres normal to the cone but they are simply bent over and can more readily assume their given position. Furthermore the interfelting will leave them'in all and sundry positions. Nevertheless the ma- Jorityof the fibers are already started on the sizing or felting operation and therefore there is less sizing of the hat bat to be performed in the subsequent sizing operation and the hat" bat is denser than previously known hat bats. This enables me to use a smaller cone it than has heretofore been used for a given size of bat. It also tends to standardize the amount of sizing or shrinking.

Referring now to Figure 3, a specially shaped v cone, I20 is therein shown more in the shape of a finished hat than the usual cone nowprovided. By reason of'making a dense deposit of fur partially oriented in the formation of the bat and by reason of'the lesser amount of shrinks ing in manufacturing hats according to my invention I can use a cone which is nearer to the I final shape of the hat than has heretofore been used. Thereby the manufacture of hats is simplified. Y

The provision of the Faraday cage ill is to provide an eifective shield against a discharge of i0 electricity from the cylinder 60 on to the operator andv otherwise as a protection- In the foregoing description I have used the term bat" accurately I believe to refer to the body formed by deposit of fur upon a cone and prior to the time when the shrinking is "started"; that is prior to the starting operation." However the term hat bat" and the term "hat body" should be interpreted broadly in the claims since the one proceeds out of the other. m

It will thus be seen that there has been provided by this invention an article, a method and an apparatus in which the various objects hereinabove set forth together with many thoroughly practical advantages are successfully achieved. 25 As many possible embodiments may be made of the above invention and as many changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth, it is to be understood that all matter hereinbefore set forth, or shown in the accompanying drawing,,is to be interpreted as iilustrative'and notin a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. Method for forming hat bats by projecting fur in a storm from a wind roller to a forming 88 cone which consists in establishing an electric field of high intensity between the wind roller and the forming cone.

2. Method according to claim 1 in which a given charge is impressed on the wind roller and 40 an opposite charge upon the forming cone.

3. Method according to claim 1 in which a container is provided for the cone, a given charge is imparted to the container and the wind roller and an opposite charge is imparted to the form- 5 ing cone. g

4. Apparatus for forming hat bats comprising a forming cone, means to rotate said forming cone, means for delivering particles of fur above said forming cone, and means for creating an electrical field of high intensity having a total voltage difi'erence of at least five thousand volts between said means for delivering fur and said" forming cone whereby the fur is electrically directed to the forming cone and deposited thereon.

5. Apparatus for forming hat bats comprising a forming cone, means rotatably supporting said forming cone. insulating means for said forming cone, means to rotate said forming cone, a cylinder surrounding said forming cone, a picker roll positioned to direct fur into said cylinder. and means for creating an electrical field of at least five thousand volts potential difference between said picker and said forming cone.

6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 5 including 65 also a Faraday cage around said cylinder and said forming cone for the protection of the operator.

- GEORGE CROMPION, JR. 

